How often is LabVIEW and NI hardware actually used in industrial applications?

[stinger27]

Currently going through LV Core 3, and the course is based around a boiler project. But I'm sitting here wondering, do people actually use compactRIO's/LabVIEW instruments to control boilers and other industrial equipment such as this?

I come from the industrial automation world, where everything is done with PLC's. At previous companies I've worked at, the boiler was controlled with a PLC. Water systems were done with PLC's. To be honest, I've never seen a piece of hardware from NI in the real world.

Just wondering if I'm alone in this. Maybe a boiler isn't really in the scope for NI hardware and this project is just an example project for learning only? Thoughts on this?

[~jiggawax~]

Seems odd that you would ask this in the TestStand forums but I'll throw in my 2 cents.

I do know that NI hardware and LabVIEW is used by Microsoft to control their data centers.  Specifically the temperature.  I've used their hardware and LabVIEW in many many applications.  Most of those are PXI and measurement based.  I'm not as much into the control side of it.

The entire launch software for SpaceX is written in LabVIEW.  Not sure about the hardware.  Another example I can confirm is a nuclear power plant is completely controlled by LabVIEW and cRIO systems.  Not sure I can say which one without getting in trouble.

To your point thought, PLCs are probably more common in manufacturing, simple systems.  I think where the NI hardware comes into play is when a more sophisticated system is needed that PLCs can't meet, for example timing requirements or heavy PID algorithms.  Or the company just wants more control.  My company wrote a LabVIEW HMI for a PLC that was testing heart valves.  We had to do a ton of math that the PLC software couldn't handle, as well as a specific UI.

Another example my company helped with is simulating lightning strikes on the entire "nervous" system of aircraft.  Basically all the sensors and electrical to see how it behaved.  We used NI hardware as well as LabVIEW for that.

I'm sure others have hundreds of examples out there.  But I will say this, just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  Of course you should always choose the best solution for the situation.  Sometimes you don't need a backhoe when a shovel is sufficient.

Hope this helps,

[crossrulz]

I just moved this thread to the Breakpoint, which is more fitting for this topic.

Just to add to this, cRIOs are used all over the place in CERN.

In my own personal experience, I used cRIOs to replace a data acquisition system that communicated with PLCs through DIO.  So, yes, these were in industrial settings.  The only reason I didn't push for more control to be done by the cRIO was because we were trying to do a drop-in replacement for a 10+ old system (in one case, the DAQ computer actually "blew up").

But in my current position, I am using cRIOs in a test system, mostly for high-speed digital pulsing and other IO (analog outputs and static DIO).

[wiebe@CARYA]

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@stinger27 wrote:

Currently going through LV Core 3, and the course is based around a boiler project. But I'm sitting here wondering, do people actually use compactRIO's/LabVIEW instruments to control boilers and other industrial equipment such as this?

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Yes. We use cRIOs for (pilot) plants and automation (and T&M, R&D).

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@stinger27 wrote:

I come from the industrial automation world, where everything is done with PLC's. At previous companies I've worked at, the boiler was controlled with a PLC. Water systems were done with PLC's. To be honest, I've never seen a piece of hardware from NI in the real world.

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You haven't seen all the world 😎.

Most systems are probably traditional PLCs (our customers call the cRIOs 'the PLC'), but NI hardware is used.

Some of our customers have (literally) dozens of plants automated with NI hardware.

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@stinger27 wrote:

Just wondering if I'm alone in this. Maybe a boiler isn't really in the scope for NI hardware and this project is just an example project for learning only? Thoughts on this?

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That depends on what boiler you are referring to. A household boiler is about as expensive as a cRIO, so automating those with NI would be quite expensive.

We have several customers that automate boiler testing with NI hardware, and lots of pilot plants have boilers, heaters, autoclaves, etc., automated with cRIOs...

[altenbach]

If you watched the keynotes of NI connect (now available for streaming), you would have seen testimonials from several big users (for example the electric car division of GM).

The world is not just boilers and control is no longer trivial. 😄 Nowadays, all data from all boilers needs to be accessible and controllable from anywhere in the world while also being secured from unauthorized access.

PLC is a very wide term and scales across huge ranges of hardware (from tiny chip, to small brick, to full rack!). For all practical purposes, a cRIO  is just a very (very!) fancy PLC! IMHO, of course.

[AeroSoul]

Stemming from the thread Incongruous sightings of LabVIEW, i'd say that labview and NI hardware is mostly used in large scale highly specialised projects (which are also mentioned in this thread, such as nuclear power plant, spacex etc.)

My company has an older product which uses a NI PCIe card as well as the connector box and a newer version of that same product that only uses PCIe card. It's complete overkill in terms of power and price for the product as it is, but i can see why it was used when product was new. Since it's such an overkill i can see it phasing out with newer versions of the product (hopefully).

[wiebe@CARYA]

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@AeroSoul wrote:

Stemming from the thread Incongruous sightings of LabVIEW, i'd say that labview and NI hardware is mostly used in large scale highly specialised projects (which are also mentioned in this thread, such as nuclear power plant, spacex etc.)

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We have 9 full time programmers, doing 1-5 LabVIEW projects per year. 90% are with NI hardware (the rest is without HW or customer supplied). I would indeed call all them 'specialized' projects.

But those projects are not incongruous. That (fun) thread isn't meant give an impression of normal LV usage but quite the opposite.

Incongruous sightings are (by definition) "not in harmony or keeping with the surroundings", so I'd say there are the opposite of the normal use of NI hardware.

I know there are 5 cRIOs on this ship: Prelude FLNG | Shell Global. I put them there. (EDIT: Well, I put the SW on them and commissioned them, on on that ship.)

[AeroSoul]

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wiebe@CARYA wrote:

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I know there are 5 cRIOs on this ship: Prelude FLNG | Shell Global. I put them there.

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That must be a nice sight in your CV 😄

[wiebe@CARYA]

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@AeroSoul wrote:

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wiebe@CARYA wrote:

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I know there are 5 cRIOs on this ship: Prelude FLNG | Shell Global. I put them there.

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That must be a nice sight in your CV 😄

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If I remember to put it on there. Co-owner of the company (not Shell 🙄) for almost 20 years 😎.

[altenbach]

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wiebe@CARYA wrote:
But those projects are not incongruous. That (fun) thread isn't meant give an impression of normal LV usage but quite the opposite.

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Not only that, but for really well written LabVIEW applications, the UI is so customized that you would never know that there is actually LabVIEW under the hood. For example, have a look here.

One example of a LabVIEW based touch-screen interface: